101 Strength Training Workouts & Strategies
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From the editors of Muscle & Fitness magazine, which has been excelling in the area of physique transformation for over 70 years, this book is built on the foundation that the key to a strong, healthy body is an effective muscle and strength-training program. This health provides all the guidance needed to achieve workout goals and have a muscular body.
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101 Strength Training Workouts & Strategies - Muscle & Fitness
Chapter 1
Warm Up to a New Idea
Touching your toes has gone the way of parachute pants in the weight room. This is your new preworkout mandate:
Don’t stretch. Move
When you get to the gym, there are two paths you can take. You could use the first 15 minutes of your session to prime your body for peak performance, or you can risk being weaker and more prone to injury. It’s your call. Once you begin to understand the principles behind a sound dynamic warm-up, we think we know how you’ll decide.
Your days of strolling into your gym, tossing out a few arm swings and diving right into your workout have come to an end. It’s time to start treating your body with the same care a world-class athlete does, and one thing elite athletes and coaches have figured out is that static stretching and an inadequate warm-up don’t cut it when you want to perform your best. Your body needs to prepare for the work it’s about to undertake, and warming up dynamically is the best way to get the job done.
Don’t Stretch. Move
When you’re about to train with weights — or run, jump or do anything athletic — the idea is to thoroughly warm up your body and get more blood flowing to your muscles using movement vs. standing or sitting in one place and stretching. This idea of warming up your muscles rather than elongating them is a major advancement beyond the traditional static stretching you did in gym class. Starting your workouts with an intelligent movement progression is the ideal way to construct an optimal foundation for success in the gym.
A comprehensive dynamic warm-up will accomplish everything you need to bring to your workouts,
says Nate Winkler, co-owner of Juggernaut Training Systems in Laguna Hills, California, and a former collegiate track athlete. When you put the right moves together and finish your warm-up sweating, everything’s going to be ready to go.
High-Knees Crossover Run
START: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees bent, lower back arched and elbows bent approximately 90 degrees with your hands in front of you.
EXECUTION: Run sideways by raising the knee of your back leg as high as you can and stepping across your body. Go for 20 yards, then reverse direction.
10
SECOND TIP
Try to swing your knee and leg across your body as quickly as possible
3-Way Jumping Jacks
START: Perform this series of movements the same way you’d do traditional jumping jacks from the waist down. With your feet together and your weight on the balls of your feet, jump from this position and land with your feet wider than your shoulders, then bounce back to the start.
EXECUTION: For the first 10 reps, swing your arms so they cross in front of you with your hands at your midsection. For the next 10 reps, swing your arms at chest level. Perform the final 10 reps in traditional fashion.
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SECOND TIP
Don’t stop after finishing each variation. Think of this as one continuous set of 30 reps
Our dynamic warm-up progression is simply a series of movements designed to raise your core temperature, increase joint mobility and activate the central nervous system (CNS) before putting your body through a strenuous workout. Accomplishing these three objectives is vital to your progress when you want to add mass and get stronger: When you add poundage to your lifts each week, you should give yourself every possible competitive advantage while bulletproofing yourself against injury.
If you’re still using an antiquated static stretching warm-up — or not taking the time to warm up at all — you’re courting disaster. Static stretching won’t appreciably raise your core temperature, which is a must for motor-unit recruitment and coordinated muscular contraction. Stretching also lengthens your tissues and leaves you susceptible to injury by promoting muscle, joint and ligament laxity. When you lift heavy weights, you want your muscles warm, coiled and ready to explode as opposed to loose, cold and vulnerable to the forces you’re applying to them.
To perform your best athletically, you need your CNS firing on all cylinders,
Winkler says. Static stretching puts your central nervous system to sleep. Warming up dynamically activates your CNS. In my experience, it’s best to save your serious static stretching for after your workouts.
Total-Body Readiness
Our dynamic warm-up is a general sampling of movements that’ll warm up your body from head to toe as opposed to stretch individual muscles. By the time you’re finished, the core temperature of every major muscle group will be raised and you’ll be prepared to begin your warm-up sets with the first exercises in your workout. We guarantee you’ll feel the difference immediately in both strength levels and range of motion.
Prisoner Squat
START: Stand erect with your feet shoulder-width apart and your fingers interlocked behind your head, your weight over your heels.
EXECUTION: Descend into a thighs-parallel squat, then return to standing.
Side Lunge
START: Stand erect with your feet together and your arms at your sides.
EXECUTION: Step directly to the side with one leg and descend into a lunge. Keep your anchor leg extended — you should feel a stretch in your groin — and the knee of your working leg directly over that foot. Return to standing and repeat for reps, then switch sides.
Bird Dog
START: Kneel on all fours on the floor, hands shoulder-width apart and arms straight under your shoulders.
EXECUTION: Simultaneously extend your left arm directly in front of you and your right leg straight behind you so they’re parallel to the floor and in line with your torso. Return to the start and repeat with the opposite arm and leg.
Low Pogo Jump
START: Stand erect with your feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent and elbows bent approximately 90 degrees with your hands in front of you.
EXECUTION: Bounce up and down in a low jump as quickly as you can for five seconds. Envision jumping rope without a rope.
Iron Cross
START: Lie faceup on the floor with your arms forming a T
perpendicular to your torso with your palms down. Keep your feet and knees together, and bend your knees and hips 90 degrees so your thighs are perpendicular to the floor and your shins are parallel to it.
EXECUTION: Keeping your hands on the floor and squeezing your knees together, twist your hips and touch the outside of one knee to the floor, then reverse the motion and repeat on the opposite side.
Leg Swing
START: Grasp the vertical post of a power rack or other stationary anchor with one hand, or place one hand against a wall.
EXECUTION: Keeping your outside leg as straight as possible, kick it as high as you can in front of you, then swing it as far behind you as you can. Repeat for reps, then switch sides.
Crossover Leg Swing
START: Turn and face a stationary anchor or the wall and use both hands, keeping your body erect but in a slight forward lean.
EXECUTION: Keeping one leg straight, kick it out to the side as high as possible, leading with the outside of your foot, then swing it down and across the front of your body until your hips are slightly turned. Repeat for reps, then switch sides.
Supine Kick
START: Lie faceup on the floor with your legs straight, feet together and arms forming a T
perpendicular to your torso with your palms down. Anchor one leg to the floor.
EXECUTION: Maintaining minimal flexion in the opposite knee, kick that leg as close to your head as possible until you feel a stretch in your hamstring. Lower your heel to the floor and repeat for reps, then switch sides.
Side Shuffle (not shown)
START: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees bent, lower back arched and elbows bent about 90 degrees with your hands in front of you. Your weight should be primarily on the balls of your feet.
EXECUTION: At a comfortable pace and without letting your feet cross over each other or touch, shuffle laterally for 20 yards, then reverse direction. Keep your head and chest aligned and at consistent levels.
Broomstick Stretch (not shown)
START: Grasp a broomstick, dowel or piece of PVC pipe in a snatch grip with your hands well outside shoulder width.
EXECUTION: With your arms extended, raise the broomstick overhead and behind you as far as you can until you feel a stretch in your shoulders. Reverse direction and lower the stick to your thighs.
Backpedal
START: Stand with your knees bent, lower back arched and elbows bent about 90 degrees with your hands in front of you.
EXECUTION: Staying low, push off backward with one foot so you jog in reverse with your head directly over the foot that’s propelling you. Backpedal for 20 yards, then turn around and repeat. When you push off, drive your opposite elbow back toward your destination.
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SECOND TIP
To help yourself nail the proper form on backpedaling, think nose over toes
You want to progress from the general to the specific,
Winkler says. Start out with an easy movement such as jogging or jumping jacks, then gradually make it more specific. Most people I train start out with such stiff hips that they can’t get to parallel when they squat. Consistently performing a good dynamic warm-up will solve that problem and many others.
To perform these movements, you may have to retreat to your gym’s aerobics room or take things outside to the parking lot or sidewalk. If you’re easily embarrassed, you might feel silly jumping around before your session, especially when you’re the only one in the gym doing it. Look at it this way: Instead of being just another gym guy,
you’re preparing yourself to train the same way professional and Olympic athletes do. Better yet, you’ll experience marked performance improvement across the board — gains that’ll eventually offset any potential embarrassment when you try this for the first time.
Hip-Flexor Stretch
START: From a standing position, step forward with one leg as far as you can into